The Lady In Gold
Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer was one of the most famous paintings of the twentieth century. But in March 1938 it was seized by the Nazis. The golden portrait, commissioned by Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer of his wife, was one of six Klimts taken by the Germans. It eventually ended up in a Viennese museum. Ferdinand’s niece and heir, Maria Altmann (age 84), who lives in America has fighting to get it back.. After taking the case to the Supreme Court she sued the state of Austria in a US court – and won. This film traces the history of this extraordinary and iconic painting from its commission, through the legal battles, to its final sale to the billionaire cosmetics heir, Ronald Lauder for a staggering $135 million.
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The Pharaoh's Head
In 1994 the head of Scotland Yard's Art squad was called to the British Museum to investigate a case of suspected stolen Egyptian artefacts.
His trail led him to a small village in Devon, where he uncovered a treasure chest of looted art. Over three thousand pieces were handled by a smuggling ring that crossed three continents; some of it funded by one of Manhattan's most respected antiques dealers.
At the centre of the ring was a former British Army officer who tried to kill himself with hemlock as the net closed around him. The detective's tenacity led to the return of thousands of artefacts to the Egyptian government including the panels of a tomb from Saqqara, the City of the Dead, and the head of most prosperous Egyptian Pharaoh.
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Miami Sting
Two Rubens paintings are lifted from a tiny gallery in a small town in northern Spain by a mysterious robber. One of pictures turns up in Stockholm. The robber is arrested and convicted but escapes and disappears.
Six years after the robbery the second Rubens is discovered in America when an undercover US Customs agent is alerted to the painting being offered on the black market.
This film tells the dramatic story of an elaborate sting operation in Miami in which one of the world’s leading experts in Rubens puts his life on the line to recover precious painting. But once again the elusive robber escapes justice.
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The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa
On a summers day in 1911 a man walked into the Louvre, took the Mona Lisa off the wall and walked out. He had stolen the world's most famous painting and thousands of people queued to see the empty space the painting had left.
As France mourned detectives used the newly found science of forensics to crack this high profile crime. In their haste to recover the Mona Lisa they arrested the young up and coming painter Pablo Picasso and the French poet Apollinaire.
This film follows on the trail of the eccentric thief who undetected left France trying to return the Da Vinci painting to Florence where he thought it belonged.
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The Russian Conspiracy
More than two hundred items with an estimated value of $5million, including jewellery and precious enamels, were discovered missing during a routine inventory check at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
But the head of the department from which the pieces were stolen was soon found dead at her desk? Was it natural causes or murder?
The dead curator was the prime suspect. Within weeks of the theft becoming public her husband and son were arrested, accused of selling huge quantities of precious artefacts through antique dealers and pawnbrokers.
But was the curator acting alone? Or was she a pawn in a much bigger conspiracy to take control of one of the greatest museum’s in the world.
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On the Trail of Moche Gold
In 1988 a glittering golden headdress was looted from an ancient tomb in the desert of northern Peru – and disappeared. The octopus headdress with eight Medusa like tentacles belonged to one of the Moche lords a sophisticated culture that pre dated the Incas by 1000 years.
This film follows the trail of the headdress from Peru to Spain to Germany and eventually to London. It’s a story of murder and intrigue.
The headdress finally emerges back into the public domain as the final twist in a bitter feud between two of the most controversial figures in the world of collectors of antiquities. It’s seized by detectives from Scotland Yard and is finally returned to where it belongs – in a museum in Peru.
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The Disappeared
The Disappeared vanished from the National Art Gallery in Buenos Aires. At the time Argentina was ruled by a ruthless military junta responsible for the torture and death of thousands of ‘disappeared’ members of the opposition.
This complex heist involves shady figures in the junta’s feared secret police and artworks that may have been used to help the discredited junta buy arms.
The continued existence of the paintings only came to light when a Texan woman walked into Sotheby’s – world famous auction house – offering them for sale.
This story takes us from Buenos Aires to Taiwan and to London in search of a dazzling collection that includes some of the greats from the Impressionist movement; Cezanne, Degas, Renoir and Matisse.
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The Thieving Don Juan
It’s four in the morning in the centre of Vienna …..an alarm goes off at the seventh floor window of the Museum of Art History …but the Security guards don’t react.
The next day one of the most important gold sculptures from the Renaissance is discovered stolen. It’s insurance value is a cool £35 million.
First clues point to an organised crime gang from the Balkans with insider information…ransom letters follow…then a seven hour paper chase through Vienna…finally pictures from a surveillance camera in a mobile phone shop lead Police to the outskirts of a wood.
After three years the Police finally discover who stole the sculpture. Not a Balkan warlord but a strikingly handsome fifty year old security alarm expert from Vienna with an eye for the ladies – as well as renaissance Art.
Robert Mang is sent to jail for four years – his picture in the papers makes him Austria’s most famous female pin up….and art thief.
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